Edited Press Release

PARIS -(Dow Jones)- Air France (AFLYY) and Delta Air Lines (DAL) Monday officially kicked off their joint venture agreement with a joint press conference during which Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Air France-KLM, and Glen Hauenstein, Executive Vice President Network Planning and Revenue Management, Delta Air Lines, announced the launch of three trans- Atlantic routes that take full advantage of the E.U.-U.S. Open Skies Agreement.

Beginning Monday, the joint venture partners will operate daily nonstop flights between London-Heathrow and Los Angeles-LAX, Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, and twice-daily flights to New York-JFK. Air France will operate the LAX flight while Delta will operate the JFK and Atlanta flights.

According to the terms of their expanded joint venture agreement, signed Oct. 17, the two airlines will share revenues and costs on flights operated by both carriers between London-Heathrow and the U.S., as well as on flights between Air France's Paris-CDG and Lyon hubs, and Delta's Atlanta, New York - JFK, Cincinnati and Salt Lake City hubs. By 2010, the agreement will be extended to all trans-Atlantic flights operated by Air France and Delta between Europe and the Mediterranean on one side and North America on the other side, as well as all flights between Los Angeles and Tahiti. Monday's launch of the new Heathrow-Los Angeles route makes Air France the first European carrier to offer its long-haul customers the benefits of Open Skies.

"Thanks to the new open skies agreement, our ambition in the years to come is to rank among the leading world players on this market. Along with KLM, Delta and our other SkyTeam partners, we are determined to offer passengers the greatest choice of routes and schedules between Europe and the rest of the world. The ability to offer passengers access to an enlarged network out of London, the leading European market, is a key phase in this strategy."

Within the framework of the Open Skies agreement, and in addition to our three new long-haul services to and from Heathrow, Delta will operate seven services out of Gatwick, Manchester and Edinburgh to U.S. gateways on a codeshare basis with Air France.

Company Web site: www.airfrance.com/corporate

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires
  03-31-08 0527ET
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